Richard BurgessRichard Burgess

A retelling by the author of Burgess's death-row autobiography, written in 1866 while awaiting execution for his part in the Maungatapu murders. Publication was then banned for fear of undermining public morality, and it was not fully published until 1983. Brereton has used Burgess's narrative, then existing only in a scarcely legible manuscript copy, but has not directly quoted it at length. Although considered by the Pegasus Press, this biography of one of New Zealand and Australia's most notorious criminals was never published.